2010-09-24, 01:18 PM
larmie Wrote:I couldn't reply to your last thread on this topic since it was closed but: It's very hard to get a job as a translater (see ProZ). I tried looking for freelance work but it was like winning a lottery; there are thousands of bilinguals @ native level willing to do the work for half the money. Video game translations are often done by these hired guns (see the postings @link) so you're not going to make money. High-level positions like miltary liaisons and diplomatic attachés require the highest level of language proficiency and often demand an extensive resumé and past experience.
You have to keep in mind people in Germany or France or Japan speak English. Those people usually beat out the American translators when it comes to localization. You're most likely going to use second languages to communicate with partners abroad which means you have to consider what field you're going into after you finish college. The OP says CS so Chinese or Indian is appropriate.
Chances are you're likely not going to be able to communicate in any secondary language (I took six languages and can count to ten in four) so the easiest and the most interesting language is the best. You'll forget about it by senior year, I promise.
Well, obviously, if you go out looking for a job blindly without knowing what you're getting into or knowing everything about the career path your taking, you're just going to hit dead end after dead end. If Hazzy wants to become bilingual to help his career in computer science, he's going to have to know what is wanted from him in order to use his language abilities.
I hate to go off on a tangent here, but when I went to the Toyota company in Tennessee when I went to visit my mother, they said that I could easily get a job doing corporate translations between the companies in Japan and the United States as a liazon if I were proficient enough in the language. So, in order to be able to use language as a career, you MUST know what you're doing. If you just merely put yourself out there and hope you get welcoming arms like those people on Proz are doing, you're not going to get anywhere. Life in this era is all about connections and knowing what you're doing. Without all of that, you're pretty screwed and you're not going to get anywhere.
Hazzy, if you want to pursue a language for the betterment of the career you're going into, do the research. If you find a language you wish to pursue and a way to apply it, then don't hesitate -- just go for it and work your ass off.